Prepare yourself for the writings of Tondar the Destroyer, Baron of Atlanta, Rightful Heir to the Throne of Spain, from whom all babies come. As his will be blogged, so let it be done.

Friday, April 27, 2007

WORKING TO BE JERRY'S KIDS

I talk a lot about the Colangelo Rules and how they have changed the NBA. Both Jerry, and his son Bryan have transformed the league from the sport most despised by ESPN, back into the high flying, slamma-jamma-in-yo-face coast to coast score-fest.Ian Thomsen has an excellent breakdown of why the Pistons have been able to thrive in this league without Big Ben. Money quote...

But now it's as clear as the absence of Wallace's headband that these Pistons, though they won 11 fewer games, have a chance to be better than last year. The main reason is that their defense has improved without Wallace. They were No. 2 in scoring defense (allowing 91.8 points) after finishing No. 3 last year, and their No. 6 ranking in field goal defense (44.5 percent) represents a huge jump from last year, when they were a middling 13th in that most telling category.

More importantly, like Popovich's 3 time champion Spurs, the Pistons have been able to transform themselves without missing a step from the lockdown team of 2004, to the more flexible and offensive oriented team of the post-Ben Wallace era. Probably the best part of this team is that, like the Lakers of the 1980's, Joe Dumars has put the team into a position where they can dominate its conference for well over a decade.